Lang Lang Joins the S.B. Symphony at the Granada

Every great story about creative success ought to have one of these moments-the telephone rings, and the caller is so great, and so unexpected, and the offer is so right, that at first it seems too good to be true. On Saturday night, the Santa Barbara Symphony will enter its home venue, the Granada Theatre, to fulfill a fantasy invitation from the world’s number-one solo pianist, Lang Lang. The most driven musician of his generation is in training for a crucial season of featured solos with the world’s greatest orchestras, and he has chosen to do that here. Why? Because he likes the Granada, because he likes their Steinway piano, but most of all because he likes the idea of practicing for an extended period and then performing with the Santa Barbara Symphony under the baton of Nir Kabaretti.

The result of this massive and unforeseen vote of confidence for the symphony is twofold. First, there will be a special, double-length rehearsal period, stipulated (and paid for) by Lang Lang, who is waiving his performance fees for the evening. Then there will be the concert itself, a one-night-only Beethoven extravaganza, with Lang Lang performing the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 3 back-to-back. It’s a colossal effort that undoubtedly will bring out the best in Lang Lang, who trains like an athlete for these super-intense shows.

A lot of the drama in contemporary classical music performance today attends to the every movement of a handful of genuine young stars, many of them Chinese, who have taken piano performance to a new level of spectacle and execution. In Santa Barbara, we have been fortunate to hear the super-charged Chopin of both Lang Lang and his even younger compatriot, Yuja Wang, just within the last year. What Lang Lang does with Beethoven and with the Santa Barbara Symphony could have a major impact on this most volatile of competitive situations, the perpetual quest for the piano summit.